HI GC,, This is my first Hydro Grow and all has been going just fine. I am now in week six since changing to 12/12 and almost 4 weeks since my first pistols popped, my plants have grown a bit bigger than I had intended and are really tight inside my tent. For the last couple of weeks, my PH has gone from Going UP daily, to Leveling out, and now Dropping on a daily basis. I PH Up to 5.8 and by the next morning I am at 5.5 I have been lowering the PPM to see if that might help stabilize the PH, but I am down to ec1.3 and still not really helping. 4 Site RDWC with Controller bucket. 14-15 Gallons of water TOTAL. RO Water (from store machine) Advanced Nutrients PH Perfect M,G,B with B52 and Big Bud, Cal Mag and Sensizym ------------------------------------ Current PH - 5.67 (and going down) Current PPM - 540 (and going down) Temp - 77 Water - 65 Humidity - 30% ----------------------------------- I did my Google Searches and came up with the following:: 1. PPM Too High (i have lowered from 1.7) 2. Root Rot (not that I can see or smell) 3. Res Too Small (i guess this might be why the swing is so fast) 4. Roots happy and releasing Alkali in the water (uhh?) Anyway,, I am open to suggestions and could use any help you can throw my way.
I would guess that you need to raise the PPM. what I learned from people on GC is that the nutes are towards the acidic side, (acid pH is 0, base is 14 i think) so if the pH is dropping, it's because the plant is depleting the solution of the nutes, leaving the pH to rise. I think it's the plants asking for higher ppm. when you get to the point where pH is stable, it probably means that you've found the sweet spot. I would think 560 ppm is way low, usually by that time, I am around 1000. anyone else have thoughts on this?
The way I understand it is - If the plants are depleting the Nutes than the PH will rise cause there is LESS Nutes in the water. When the plants are taking up water and not nutes, then the water is getting more concentrated with Nutes and therefor dropping your PH (like when you mix nutes in with your water for feeding, then PH comes down) So if the Nute Strength is High, it will force the PH Down. This is why I am lowering the PPM. Is this not correct? Although I agree, I believe 560 is low at this stage of the game, but my plants so far have not liked a high EC level at all during this grow.
Well, I don't run Advanced, I use Canna so my advice comes from using those nutes. First you state you are using Advanced PH Perfect - it is interesting that you are having PH problems. I know you use RO, what is the PH and PPMs of your tap water? Do not use PH up, just add water if your water is higher in PH. PH up can cause some problems. You need more nutes. I would bump the PPM up to at least 900. Your Advanced Nutrient website should have a calculator with recommended PPMs
I am running a 400w HPS in a Cool Tube I am using RO so I dont know what the Tap Water comes out to.. I know the RO I am getting has a Low PPM (like 25-50) Non PH Water does not bring the PH Up really at all.. It falls faster than I am able to top off, so PH Up is the only thing I can do. The RO Water I am using is in the area on 6.5PH and if I top off with Half a Gallon to a Gallon of water, it does not bring up the PH very much,, Just a little and it continues to fall throughout the day. So I am using PH UP to get me to 5.9 (or so) and let it fall for the rest of the day. Kinda the opposite of everyone else Lowering it and letting it rise throughout the day. I was at about 900 a couple of weeks ago, but the plants started showing signs of Overnuting with Really Dark Leaves and a little clawing, then my PH Started to fall, so I had been backing off in hopes of getting my PH to balance, but so far I have not found the Sweet Spot. ANs calculator is Way Off as far as I can tell. If I mix according to their calculations, the EC is through the roof. The PH Perfect did not work for me at all.. My plants could not handle Full Strength, so NO PH Perfect for me. Plus I needed to add some CalMag, so it just did not work as intended for me and I probably wont use it again.. I also cant really bash ANs product cause these plants have certainly grown big
Oh,, I also want to clarify or make sure we are all on the same page with my PPM.. I am using a .5 conversion.. so if you are using .7, then my PPM is at about 770 right now or EC 1.1
I really do not know how to help you, but I wish you well with your grow! I will follow along to see what you find out.
Hey Thanks for the Help!!.. For anyone else Following along or happen to come across this thread,, It looks like I found the spot. My PH Did not go down last night. I was at 5.9 yesterday and still 5.9 this morning. My PPMs were 547 (.5conv) last night, and are 530 this morning (before top off), so even though its weirdly low for PPM at this stage of the Plants lives, I seem to be hitting some point of Equilibrium. Stretch has also finally stopped, so hopefully they will be focusing more on Bud Production. Thanks again for the suggestions!!
Your not using the ph perfect the way the instructions say to use them You have to use GMB then you need to use a bundle and nothing else No cal mag Thus, why you see the problem with ph is my guess Glad to see you have solved your problem with ppm....wish I could see your pictures
Yea, I am basically using most of the bundle, and have just seemed to need the calmag cause I had not been able to get full strength with the Nutes.. So it is what it is.. I am just happy to have found some equilibrium. PH is still holding tight today I wonder why you cant see my images Are you viewing via the App?
Yeah, I'm on the app I wish you would try the product properly after this run(same strain) to compare what happens at full strength....that would be really awesome.... How bout just trying GMB, nothing else and see the effects on ph
I would love to try it full strength, but as you can see by this thread, any higher strength at this point and my PH Sinks like a lead weight. I had them up to 900 (.5) a couple of weeks ago, and they Got Really Dark and Clawed a few Leaves,, Nothing Tragic, but it was kinda obvious they were not overly digging it and my PH started to drop,, So I started cutting back until I hit the spot yesterday. Now my PH is stable. I may try just the GMB on my next water change and see what happens, but I think even full strength is gonna push my PPMs too high
I have a feeling that using only GMB your ppms will be over 1050 and the ph will be fine and so will the plant But, to effectively use PH perfect you must use the hobbist bundle as well, this adds the cal mag as well as sweeteners.... I would give it a go before moving on, you have nothing to loose I'm subbed for any sort of an update